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Hope

For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it (Romans 8:24-25).

Hope, in the world, is the antidote to despair. The word only begins to surface when things no longer go well. When economic times get rough, people hope that conditions will improve. When someone becomes ill, people hope that they recover. Yet, in “normal,” positive day-to-day life, hope does not seem as necessary.

The Christian, however, is to live in hope (Romans 15;13, 1 Corinthians 13:13). There is not a time in which we are not to await the return of our Lord, the redemption of our bodies, and the opportunity to spend eternity with the Lord (Ephesians 1:18, Colossians 1:5). It is at that point, as Paul says, that we shall no longer hope, for our hope will have been realized.

But that day has not yet come. We must never be so comfortable in our lives here that we lose sight of our greater hope. We cannot allow confidence in the riches of this world to lead us to neglect our hope for riches in Heaven. We cannot be so satisfied with life here that we no longer hope for a better life in eternity. If earthly blessings sap our hope for heavenly ones, we of all people are most impoverished.

Many people live almost entirely in hope because they do not have the multitude of blessings that we have. While we may feel sorry for them now, in the long run perhaps we are to be more pitied, if we lose our heavenly hope in the satisfaction of the present.

As long as we live in a sin-sick and tragic world, let us cling to our hope in Jesus Christ!